Seoul - Day 3

I feel very accomplished today.

We spent most of the day on foot. In the morning, we walked around Insadong, which is the area where we're staying. We visited shops along the roads, stopped by for tea at a tea house and a French bread eatery.

We gradually made our way to an old palace called Gyeongbokgung. When we reached, a mini demo ritual was taking place in the courtyard. Somehow, we got into the palace without even knowing we needed a ticket. After walking around the palace, we visited the National Folk Museum.

Most of the rest of the day was spent walking around a shopping district. We went to the Lotte shopping malls. They're really huge and have a wide variety of brands. The lightings are nice too, better than Orchard Road.

I've eaten ginseng chicken twice already. It seems to be quite popular here, and it's quite rare in Singapore.

The temperature today was -11°C. I survived it! That's why I'm feeling so accomplished. The wind chill was quite bad today too, making the cold even worse. To get a rough idea of how it felt, open your freezer and place your hand in the deep end for 10s. Now imagine there's cold wind inside your freezer and extend the time to about 12 hours. The cold stung my face and sometimes my nose seemed to lose connection with the rest of my face. Mom reminded me that in US, once the temperature climbed to 0°C or higher, Jean and I would already be out playing or cycling. I wonder how I survived that.

It was so cold today that any water seen on the ground was frozen. I even saw frozen spit on the ground.

Ok my phone's running out of battery so I'd better stop typing now.